CUFAMCO placed 2nd in Cornucopia Awards and received PhP3M worth of project inputs. Its Chairman, Andres Mulingtapang, said that they will use the project grant to improve their cooperative and to further develop new technologies, with the goal of giving emphasis to value-adding towards creating more products made from corn. Meanwhile, Quilay and Caliwara were among this year’s National Quality Corn Achievers Awards Outstanding AEWs and each of them received cash prize of PhP20 thousand.

Moreover, DA CALABARZON Corn and Cassava Program, headed by its Coordinator, Avelita M. Rosales, was recognized as one of the Outstanding Regional Corn and Cassava Teams because of having a Cornucopia awardee this year.

In his message, Department of Agriculture (DA) Undersecretary for Operations Ariel T. Cayanan said that the DA wants to make corn more competitive globally and produce different value-added products out of it. He also thanked all the farmers and stakeholders for their contributions in corn farming and encouraged everyone to continue planting corn as it is one of the important food crops. “There is huge potential for the Philippines to grow the agriculture sector, especially in growing corn, and to make it much better than it is today,” USec. Cayanan added.

DA CALABARZON delegates were led by Regional Executive Director Arnel V. de Mesa.

Other activities included in the three-day congress were plenary sessions, agricultural machinery exhibition, and bazaar of different agricultural products of participating regions.